A 2019 Nanos national opinion survey indicated that nine in 10 pre-COVID-19 pandemic Canadians then held a negative impression of the government of China.
Many nationals of countries with independent media probably know that during about 40 days in late 2019 and early last year, Beijing concealed and falsified information about the spread of COVID-19 within China. German intelligence and others report that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) pressured the WHO to delay issuing a global warning about the virus. US government security concluded that Beijing suppressed the information so it could buy up personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies globally.
When COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) moved quickly to screen flights from there on Dec. 31, 2019; ban Wuhan residents on Jan. 23 last year; institute intensive testing and contact tracing; and bar all visitors from China on Feb. 6 last year.
If the WHO and its 194 member nations had adopted Taiwan’s practices, many of the infections and deaths worldwide could have been avoided.
The biggest influx of COVID-19 carriers into Europe was about 260,000 Chinese citizens, with two-thirds flying back to their jobs in Italy. By Jan. 11 last year, there were 2.2 million confirmed cases in Italy and 79,203 deaths.
EU governments, Australia and the US demanded an independent investigation on how COVID-19 spread to humans. Xi offered US$2 billion to the WHO, but until this month it blocked the WHO and international investigators from entering Wuhan.
Some class-action lawsuits for damages against the government of China appear already to be under way in the US.
Many rule of law advocates say that Beijing should be held liable for the worldwide consequences of its misfeasance, which already includes more than 92 million infections, 2 million deaths and about 400 million jobs lost. The global economic loss to date is estimated at about US$16 trillion.
The pandemic also underlined that Canada and many democracies are overly dependent on China for medicines, PPE and manufactured goods. Canada alone has lost about 600,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.
Another major consideration for Canadians is Xi’s “hostage diplomacy,” and his regime’s arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who have remained for more than two years in harsh prison conditions.
A Canadian Security Intelligence Service academic outreach concluded that “under [Xi’s] leadership, the [Chinese Communist] Party-state is staging a vehement attack on Western democracy and values.”
One egregious example is the state of democratic governance and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
Beijing has for decades conducted organ-harvesting from thousands of prisoners of conscience — Falun Gong, Uighur Muslims, Tibetans, Christians and others. The despicable commerce is documented in Bloody Harvest (2009) by David Matas and The Slaughter (2014) by Ethan Gutmann, both of whom also helped pen an update in 2016.
Canada’s Irwin Cotler and Matas recently proposed remedies for the COVID-19 damage caused by the government of China, including through the International Court of Justice, with any UN member state to be allowed to ask the UN General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the court on a legal question, and China would not be able to use its veto.
The WHO’s behavior amid the pandemic is disappointing. Instead of China reforming its policies and practices, it was the WHO that altered its approach to accommodate Beijing.
If interventions in China had begun three weeks earlier, transmission of COVID-19 could have been reduced by 95 percent, a study by the University of Southampton in the UK concluded.
The US Magnitsky Act, named for murdered Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky, allows for the public listing of human rights violators, and subjects them to visa bans and asset seizures. The six countries with such legislation should pursue accountability for those in China who allowed COVID-19 to become a global pandemic.
Francis Fukuyama, formerly of the US National Endowment for Democracy, observed correctly: “We aren’t dealing with the China of the 1990s or ... 2000s, but a completely different animal that represents a clear challenge to our democratic values. We ... [must] hold it at bay until ... it returns to being a more normal authoritarian country, or ... [more] liberal.”
The responsible international community must act to safeguard global public health. Indulging gross negligence or worse in Xi’s China carries a long-term cost. Preventing another pandemic requires pursuing accountability against Beijing now. We must all speak up for the dignity of those who perished. The first step is holding those responsible for spreading COVID-19 and forcing them to pay damages.
Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marc Garneau is capable of working effectively with the administration of US President Joe Biden on more coordinated multilateral engagements with Beijing.
David Kilgour is a former Canadian federal lawmaker from Alberta and Cabinet minister.
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